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Ironic Contradictions
I'm a long time reader - since way back when I was seven. That makes it over three quarters of my life that I will be a reader for. But it is worth it.
When I'm not reading or wasting my time online on here or Goodreads I'll be off playing video games, studying teaching and messing around with friends and pop culture. Or reading some more.
Thoughts before reading
So...I believe this is the last book in this series. Well I'm only going to read it to finish a series I actually read most of (same as how I finished the poor Maximum Ride series). Why is it that these YA authors (and authors in general - but I've read a lot of YA authors who do it) start out with such brilliant or original first novels in the series only for the series to degrade into a series of cash grabbing schemes.
Thoughts after reading
To be honest this book was not as bad as the previous two novels. Although, 'not as bad' really says very little about the actual quality of this final book which was patchy due to the amount of deus-ex-machina used. For instance it was never really explained where the Berserkers came from or why they existed. Why have such a crucial plot device without properly (and I mean without a throwaway vague sentence or two) explaining how they came about. They just seemed to exist to create a dilemma, same as the Armageddon 'device'. I also disliked on the whole how the 'body jumping' was used. It appears that Colfer grabbed a bunch of popular plot devices and strung them together into a story that was fun - so long as you didn't think about it while reading. So while it was not an overly convincing ending to a series, which on the whole I enjoyed, it scrapes through with an 'okay' pass.
The series appears to have gone through a trend of starting poorly, reaching a peak between books three and five and then getting worse to finish off. It almost seems, as alluded to in my thoughts prior to reading this book, that Colfer reached the precipice of the series and then switched to autopilot to write for the money. The passion, the quality of writing and the imagination seem to have faded away leaving only the little remnants of humour and weaker stories in their place.
Would I recommend this book? Yes and no. I personally think there are better books for teenage readers. I'd pick Hunger Games over this personally as I think it has more relevance for teenage readers in reality and I would absolutely pick [b:The Lightning Thief|28187|The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)|Rick Riordan|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361038385s/28187.jpg|3346751] over any book in this series for a pre-teen/teen reader. But as far as humorous, imaginative fun? It's not too bad. However you could always do better and that is the problem with this series and with most YA fiction around.
